Painter and printmaker Alexander-Gaston Guignard, known primarily as simply Gaston Guignard, was born in Bordeaux, France, on March 8, 1848. He originally intended to pursue law and registered with Paris bar in the late 1860s. However, the Franco-Prussian interrupted these plans as he was sent to fight in a dragoon regiment in 1870. When the war ended he decided to study painting under the instruction of Jules-Jean Ferry, Henri Gervex, and Ferdinand Humbert.

Guignard participated in his first major exhibition at the 1874 Paris Salon, and would go on to earn medals at the International Exhibition in 1883 and the Universal Exhibition in 1889. In 1891 the French government awarded him the Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur. He was a member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and exhibited with the Salon de la Societe des Pastellistes. In 1906, he become one of the first French artists to exhibit in Argentina, holding shows in Buenos Aires (1906) and Rio de Janiero (1908). He died in Paris on October 16, 1922.

His work can be found in the collections throughout Europe and the U.S., including the Musee d'Orsay, the Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville, Paris, the National Museum of Fine Arts Bordeaux, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and more.